You’ve Got a Friend in BYOD

Dan Hoffman, Casper Administrator for Pixar Animation Studios, took us through the journey of Pixar’s experience with managing personally owned devices. Pixar, known for its Academy Award winning animation films, is one of the most innovative companies in the world. To support that innovation, Pixar allows employees to bring their personal devices to work. Dan explained how they used the Casper Suite to maintain security, be transparent to users about management, and overcome social and technical hurdles.

“A project like this is as much of a cultural balancing act as a technical one,” explained Dan, highlighting the complexity of a BYOD initiative. The culture of Pixar has enabled them to practice a user-centric IT approach for several years, so an easy and intuitive solution was needed. As Dan put it, “the psychology of IT-past is affecting us today,” and breaking that old model can enable great things to happen.

The release of Casper Suite 9.4 with BYOD support allowed Pixar to do just that. Now Pixar employees are living as if they are in Andy’s room — where IT and Users work together, trust each other, and share. Plus they all get their work email on their personal devices!